10 Awesome Wrestlers Who Quit Before They Were 40
8. Joey Mercury
Joey Mercury was only 25 when he first signed with WWE, but the independent star had years of experience under his belt - including a stint with ECW.
He and Tough Enough winner Johnny Nitro were put together as MNM, winning gold in OVW before coming up to Smackdown and capturing the WWE Tag Team Titles.
Though Nitro was the flashier member of the group, Mercury was the workhorse who knew the ins and outs of making a match come together. He quickly established himself as one of the most underrated talents in the entire company, but a drug test failure by Mercury forced the breakup of MNM.
Mercury returned months later to reprise the team and feud with The Hardy Boyz, but a grisly injury suffered in a ladder match led to a relapse of the star's addiction to pain medication, and he was released in 2007.
Mercury spent the next couple of years working the independents and finally conquering his addictions. In 2010, he was re-signed by WWE and put into CM Punk's Straight Edge Society, but a torn pectoral muscle put him on the shelf.
Once he healed up, WWE decided to start using the 31-year-old as a trainer, then a producer. He's been in that role since, with the exception of a run as part of J & J Security.